Word processor

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OpenOffice.org Writer in Version 3.2 KWord LyX

A word processor (more formally known as document preparation system)^{[citation needed]} is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of printable material.
Word processor may also refer to a type of stand-alone office machine, popular in the 1970s and 1980s, combining the keyboard text-entry and printing functions of an electric typewriter with a dedicated processor (like a computer processor) for the editing of text. Although features and design varied between manufacturers and models, with new features added as technology advanced, word processors for several years usually featured a monochrome display and the ability to save documents on memory cards or diskettes. Later models introduced innovations such as spell-checking programs, increased formatting options, and dot-matrix printing. As the more versatile combination of a personal computer and separate printer became commonplace, most business-machine companies stopped manufacturing the word processor as a stand-alone office machine. As of 2009 there were only two U.S. companies, Classic and AlphaSmart, which still made stand-alone word processors.^[1] Many older machines, however, remain in use. Since 2009, Sentinel has offered a machine described as a word processor, but in actuality it is more accurately a highly specialised microcomputer, used for accounting and publishing. ^[2]
Word processors are descended from early text formatting tools (sometimes called text justification tools, from their only real capability). Word processing was one of the earliest applications for the personal computer in office productivity.
Although early word processors used tag-based markup for document formatting, most modern word processors take advantage of a graphical user interface providing some form of what-you-see-is-what-you-get editing. Most are powerful systems consisting of one or more programs that can produce any arbitrary combination of images, graphics and text, the latter handled with type-setting capability.
Microsoft Word is the most widely used word processing software. Microsoft estimates that over 500,000,000 people use the Microsoft Office suite,^[3] which includes Word. Many other word processing applications exist, including WordPerfect (which dominated the market from the mid-1980s to early-1990s on computers running Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system) and open source applications OpenOffice.org Writer, AbiWord, KWord, and LyX. Web-based word processors, such as Google Docs, are a relatively new category.

References

References

1. ^ Mark Newhall, Farm Show.
2. ^ StarLux Illumination catalog
3. ^ "Microsoft Office Is Right at Home". Microsoft. January 8, 2009. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Smith, William D. (1971) "Lag Persists for Business Equipment;" The New York Times, October 26, 1971 p. 59
5. ^ ^{a b} Dullea, Georgia (1971): "Is It a Boon for Secretaries—Or Just an Automated Ghetto?" The New York Times, February 5, 1974, p. 32
6. ^ "IBM Adds to Line of Dictation Items;" The New York Times, September 12, 1972; p. 72; reports introduction of "five new models of 'input word processing equipment,' better known in the past as dictation equipment" and gives IBM's definition of WP as "the combination of people, procedures, and equipment which transforms ideas into printed communications.'" The machines described were of course ordinary dictation machines recording onto magnetic belts, not voice typewriters.
7. ^ Miller, Diane Fisher (1997) "My Life with the Machine": "By Sunday afternoon, I urgently want to throw the Xerox 800 through the window, then run over it with the company van. It seems that the instructor forgot to tell me a few things about doing multi-page documents... To do any serious editing, I must use both tape drives, and, without a display, I must visualize and mentally track what is going onto the tapes."
8. ^ Smith, William D (1974) "Xerox Is Introducing a Speedier Electric Typewriter," The New York Times, October 8, 1974, p. 57
9. ^ O'Kane, Lawrence (1966): "Computer a Help to 'Friendly Doc'; Automated Letter Writer Can Dispense a Cheery Word". The New York Times, May 22, 1966, p. 348: "Automated cordiality will be one of the services offered to physicians and dentists who take space in a new medical center.... The typist will insert the homey touch in the appropriate place as the Friden automated, programmed "Flexowriter" rattles off the form letters requesting payment... or informing that the X-ray's of the patient (kidney) (arm) (stomach) (chest) came out negative."
10. ^ Rostky, Georgy (2000). "The word processor: cumbersome, but great". EETimes. Retrieved 2006-05-29.
11. ^ Smith, William D. (1974) "Electric Typewriter Sales Are Bolstered by Efficiency," The New York Times, December 16, 1974, p. 57
12. ^ Thomas, David "Knights of the New Technology". Key Porter Books, 1983, p. 94.
13. ^ CBC Television, Venture, "AES: A Canadian Cautionary Tale" http://archives.cbc.ca/economy_business/business/clips/14928/ . Broadcast date February 4, 1985, minute 3:50.
14. ^ Thomas, David "Knights of the New Technology". Key Porter Books, 1983, p. 97 & p. 98.
15. ^ “Will success spoil Steve Dorsey?”, Industrial Management magazine, Clifford/Elliot & Associates, May 1979, p. 8 & p. 9.
16. ^ “Will success spoil Steve Dorsey?”, Industrial Management magazine, Clifford/Elliot & Associates, May 1979, p. 7.
17. ^ Thomas, David "Knights of the New Technology". Key Porter Books, 1983, p. 102 & p. 103.
18. ^ "1970-1979 C.E.: Media History Project". University of Minnesota. May 18, 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
19. ^ Thomas, David "Knights of the New Technology". Key Porter Books, 1983, p. 94.
20. ^ CBC Television, Venture, "AES: A Canadian Cautionary Tale" http://archives.cbc.ca/economy_business/business/clips/14928/ . Broadcast date February 4, 1985, minute 3:50.
21. ^ Schuyten, Peter J. (1978): "Wang Labs: Healthy Survivor" The New York Times December 6, 1978 p. D1: "[Market research analyst] Amy Wohl... said... 'Since then, the company has installed more of these systems than any other vendor in the business."
22. ^ "NBI INC Securities Registration: Small Business (SB-2) Business". September 8, 1998.
23. ^ Pea, Roy D. and D. Midian Kurland (1987). "Cognitive Technologies for Writing". Review of Research in Education 14: 277–326.
24. ^ ^{a b} Bergin, Thomas J. (Oct-Dec 2006). "The Origins of Word Processing Software for Personal Computers: 1976-1985". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 28 (4): 32–47. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2006.76.
25. ^ Freiberger, Paul (1982-05-10). "Electric Pencil, first micro word processor". InfoWorld. pp. 12. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
26. ^ Freiberger, Paul and Michael Swaine (2000). Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, second edition. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-135892-7.
27. ^ Shrayer, Michael (1984-11). "Confessions of a naked programmer". Creative Computing. pp. 130. Retrieved March 6, 2011.

History

History

Toshiba JW-10, the first word processor for the Japanese language (1971-1978 IEEE milestones)

Examples of standalone word processor typefaces c. 1980-1981

Brother WP-1400D editing electronic typewriter (1994)

The term word processing was invented by IBM in the late 1960s. By 1971 it was recognized by the New York Times as a "buzz word".^[4] A 1974 Times article referred to "the brave new world of Word Processing or W/P. That's International Business Machines talk... I.B.M. introduced W/P about five years ago for its Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter and other electronic razzle-dazzle."^[5]
IBM defined the term in a broad and vague way as "the combination of people, procedures, and equipment which transforms ideas into printed communications," and originally used it to include dictating machines and ordinary, manually-operated Selectric typewriters.^[6] By the early seventies, however, the term was generally understood to mean semiautomated typewriters affording at least some form of electronic editing and correction, and the ability to produce perfect "originals." Thus, the Times headlined a 1974 Xerox product as a "speedier electronic typewriter", but went on to describe the product, which had no screen,^[7] as "a word processor rather than strictly a typewriter, in that it stores copy on magnetic tape or magnetic cards for retyping, corrections, and subsequent printout."^[8]
Electromechanical paper-tape-based equipment such as the Friden Flexowriter had long been available; the Flexowriter allowed for operations such as repetitive typing of form letters (with a pause for the operator to manually type in the variable information),^[9] and when equipped with an auxiliary reader, could perform an early version of "mail merge". Circa 1970 it began to be feasible to apply electronic computers to office automation tasks. IBM's Mag Tape Selectric Typewriter (MTST) and later Mag Card Selectric (MCST) were early devices of this kind, which allowed editing, simple revision, and repetitive typing, with a one-line display for editing single lines.^[10]
The New York Times, reporting on a 1971 business equipment trade show, said

The "buzz word" for this year's show was "word processing," or the use of electronic equipment, such as typewriters; procedures and trained personnel to maximize office efficiency. At the IBM exhibition a girl typed on an electronic typewriter. The copy was received on a magnetic tape cassette which accepted corrections, deletions, and additions and then produced a perfect letter for the boss's signature....^[4]

In 1971, a third of all working women in the United States were secretaries, and they could see that word processing would have an impact on their careers. Some manufacturers, according to a Times article, urged that "the concept of 'word processing' could be the answer to Women's Lib advocates' prayers. Word processing will replace the 'traditional' secretary and give women new administrative roles in business and industry."^[4]
The 1970s word processing concept did not refer merely to equipment, but, explicitly, to the use of equipment for "breaking down secretarial labor into distinct components, with some staff members handling typing exclusively while others supply administrative support. A typical operation would leave most executives without private secretaries. Instead one secretary would perform various administrative tasks for three or more secretaries."^[11] A 1971 article said that "Some [secretaries] see W/P as a career ladder into management; others see it as a dead-end into the automated ghetto; others predict it will lead straight to the picket line." The National Secretaries Association, which defined secretaries as people who "can assume responsibility without direct supervision," feared that W/P would transform secretaries into "space-age typing pools." The article considered only the organizational changes resulting from secretaries operating word processors rather than typewriters; the possibility that word processors might result in managers creating documents without the intervention of secretaries was not considered—not surprising in an era when few but secretaries possessed keyboarding skills.^[5]

INTRODUCTION TO MS-WORD

INTRODUCTION

Let us consider an office scene. Many letters are typed in the office. The officer dictates a letter. The typist first types a draft copy of the letter. The officer goes through it to check mistakes regarding spelling errors, missing words, etc. and suggests corrections. The typist changes the letter as suggested by the officer. This is a simple example of word processing.
There are many software packages to do the job of word processing. Some of them work in DOS environment. Example are WordStar, Word Perfect and Professional Write. But in these days working in WINDOWS is becoming more and more popular. So let us consider software for word processing which works in WINDOWS. Our choice is MS-WORD because it is the most popular software in these days.
MS-WORD is a part of the bigger package called MS OFFICE, which can do much more than word processing. In fact when you open up MS OFFICE you will find four main components in it. They are MS-WORD (for word processing), MS EXCEL (for spreadsheet), MS ACCESS (for database management) and MS POWERPOINT (for presentation purposes). However, we will limit ourselves to MS-WORD only in this lesson

Word Processing

A word processor is a program used to type documents. Documents can be saved, closed and the opened again to continue working on them.
The keyboard of a word processor is similar to that of a typewriter, but its capabilities extend far beyond the typewriter's. For example, you don't have to press the Return or Enter key at the end of every line - in word processing, the line "wraps around" when it reaches the margin you've set and allows you to continue typing without stopping, you only press Enter (or Return) when you want to start a new paragraph or insert blank lines. If you make a mistake while typing use backspace or delete to erase it.
There are many commercial word processing programs including Open Office Writer , Microsoft Word , Corel WordPerfect and others. Windows comes with WordPad to edit and format documents and NotePad to edit text. Mac OS X comes with TextEdit or SimpleText in previous version. Open Office is an Open Source office application that can be downloaded for free at openoffice.org.

Editing functions such as inserting, deleting, moving, and copying characters, words, lines, and even blocks of text are fast and easy with only a few keystrokes. Advanced programs will number pages, repeat material in the same place on every page automatically, and check the spelling of every word in your document. You print your document only after it looks exactly the way you want it to. Finally, copies of your documents can be stored on a disk, enabling you to retrieve, edit, and print them at any time.

Characteristics

Characteristics

Word processing typically implies the presence of text manipulation functions that extend beyond a basic ability to enter and change text, such as automatic generation of:

• batch mailings using a form letter template and an address database (also called mail merging);
• indices of keywords and their page numbers;
• tables of contents with section titles and their page numbers;
• tables of figures with caption titles and their page numbers;
• cross-referencing with section or page numbers;
• footnote numbering;
• new versions of a document using variables (e.g. model numbers, product names, etc.)

Other word processing functions include spell checking (actually checks against wordlists), "grammar checking" (checks for what seem to be simple grammar errors), and a "thesaurus" function (finds words with similar or opposite meanings). Other common features include collaborative editing, comments and annotations, support for images and diagrams and internal cross-referencing.
Word processors can be distinguished from several other, related forms of software:
Text editors were the precursors of word processors. While offering facilities for composing and editing text, they do not format documents. This can be done by batch document processing systems, starting with TJ-2 and RUNOFF and still available in such systems as LaTeX (as well as programs that implement the paged-media extensions to HTML and CSS). Text editors are now used mainly by programmers, website designers, computer system administrators, and, in the case of LaTeX by mathematicians and scientists (for complex formulas and for citations in rare languages). They are also useful when fast startup times, small file sizes, editing speed and simplicity of operation are preferred over formatting.